


Pouring from a Bottomless Glass

by Dysnomiae



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: M/M, Other, Threesome - M/M/M, polyship, timelord!Ianto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-17
Updated: 2011-02-17
Packaged: 2017-10-15 18:01:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/163417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dysnomiae/pseuds/Dysnomiae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt: "Timelord!Ianto - The Doctor takes the newly regenerated Ianto under his wing, sexxxy adventures ensue." Though maybe it isn't as sexy as Jack would like. Post-CoE.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pouring from a Bottomless Glass

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Shighola as part of the Polyship community 2010 gift exchange.

The pocket watch has a scar in it: a long indentation from being dropped or from slamming into a hard edge. For years it had welded the lid down, making it unopenable if anyone had tried around the perception filter, creating a little metal cage holding a life imprisoned. Jack turns the open watch over in his hand, slides his thumb along the scar, and presses down the lid. Now it won't shut.

"Are you ever going to put that down?" The Doctor comes up next to him, casually placing a foot on the rail and looking down at the bridge of the TARDIS. It looks different now, as does the Doctor. It's a beautiful change, and both are caught in the constant effects of time in a way Jack never will be.

Jack's gaze slides sideways to the Doctor and he smiles.

"Are you ever going to fix your hair?"

"Oy!" The Doctor defensively touches his spiked bangs. Rifts through space-time can wreak havoc on people, even devour whole planets, Jack knows this well. But he's never taken the opportunity to really appreciate the effect they can have on a man's hairstyle. With his bangs swept up at odd angles, the Doctor looks less like a humanoid and more like an electrocuted squirrel. If Jack bit into him then he might feel sparks. Although, granted, that might be for other reasons.

"It's a good look for me. Spiky hair's _cool_."

Jack suggestively lifts an eyebrow. "It's sexy."

The Doctor smiles, and he looks so boyish and tender that Jack really could just eat him. "Thank you."

Jack makes a show of looking around and asks a bit too loudly, "Now where's Amy with the hair relaxer?"

The Doctor laughs nervously. Pauses. Then he casually looks around the bridge and behind him down the hallway, as though he might find Amy there with a bottle of hair cream and a comb saying, ' _Doctor, really, don't run this time! It'll only take a moment._ ' Jack laughs and shakes his head.

"In the café," a voice calls up from the bridge. Jack swallows and looks back at the pocket watch as Ianto Jones – or whatever his name is now – fiddles with some switches on the console and moves into view. "Laying a trap, I believe."

Which means Rory should be showing up any moment at Amy's behest to lure the Doctor down there. Jack laughs, and glances at him as Ianto winks up. Ianto looks different now too. Maybe that makes it a little easier; it's not such a harsh reminder of the dying boy he'd held in his arms. Jack turns the watch over in his hand, and although he isn't looking he doesn't miss how Ianto's gaze lingers on him and is slow to look away.

The three settle into a comfortable silence, charged with questions and a loss of answers, but tranquil in that sense of trust developed through hardships. The Doctor is gazing down at the bridge, watching Ianto fiddle around as he familiarizes himself with the this and thats.

The Doctor looks at Ianto with a depth in his eyes Jack hasn't seen for a long time. It's deep enough to swallow all of him: a bottomless void, hollowed out by a war where numerous lost people should be. Jack and Amy and the others have filled it for a time, but maybe Ianto's enough to fill it a little more permanently. The Doctor has such a careful restraining hold of himself that he eventually closes his eyes and turns away.

There was a time Jack had longed to have the Doctor look at him that way. Maybe the Doctor had, when Jack wasn't looking, and turned away then as well. Now Jack just wants him to be happy.

Although it would make Jack feel a little better if the Doctor were actually focusing on what Ianto is fiddling with on the console. The last time Ianto was up to this, they got stuck in the middle of a time rift.

"I'm glad you found him," Jack says before he really thinks about it. "I mean. You're not the only Time Lord left anymore." The Master had meant so much to the Doctor as well. Since Jack's fairly certain Ianto's not going enslave Earth, he feels much more comfortable supporting the Doctor's feelings this time.

"Yeah, well. It's nice not being alone."

It breaks Jack's heart, which surprises him. Jack always thinks some part of himself will never heal again, but it always does, at least a bit. Or maybe there's always something else to break. "You were never alone."

The Doctor really does smile then. He has that sly look of thoughtfulness, as though he's worked something else out and knows it's clever.

"Neither were you." Jack makes a soft, ambivalent hum. Maybe he wasn't, but after so many lifetimes, outliving everyone, Jack's not really connected either. The Doctor shrugs and leans back, stretching his body with his chest angled toward him. Jack wonders if he's doing it on purpose and has finally learned to flirt. Then the Doctor looks down meaningfully, toward Ianto. "And you won't be, not unless you want to be."

Ah. Jack follows his gaze, and there's such a pain in his chest that it makes him look away.

The Doctor says, "You could stay with us, Jack," as though it's just that easy.

Jack shrugs. He doesn't know the answers, so he just comments, "He looks like such a kid." And that matters to Jack. Ianto had always been such a kid. It's odd how wrong that is, that Ianto is so much more than that. Ianto deserves more than what he was given on Earth, more than what Jack had been able to give him.

"He is! Especially by Time Lord standards. Just a tot. Half his life was on Earth. He grew up there all over again."

"Yeah," Jack says, although he hadn't fully known that. He's not sure it changes much. He finally succeeds in pushing the watch closed: it slides shut with the scraping sound of metal on metal. Maybe it will never open again. "But now he's someone else, isn't he?"

"Maybe you should talk to him about that."

*

Ianto smiles the same way: sly and easy and controlled, tilting his head to give a playful look or a wink. Amy teases Jack about not shaving (in his defense, Jack had been eaten alive by a plant and it hadn't occurred to him to pack a razor for the afternoon picnic he was snatched from) and Ianto adds a comment about keeping his priorities straight. "Yes, how could you think to use your knife to cut your way out when you had _stubble_?"

The smile almost fades around Ianto's lips, but it's really around his eyes that Jack sees his happiness, his wariness, and his relief.

Amy agrees, "Exactly," like it's obvious, and gives Jack a hug as Rory awkwardly punches his shoulder, welcoming him back. Then Amy is pulling back with a disgusted look, asking, "What are you covered with?!" because Jack's still coated with plant slime. It's soaked through his underwear.

Ianto hangs back until Jack playfully opens his arms for him too, slime and all. It's strange to realize that something has been missing, and he didn't know it was gone until Ianto steps forward, puts his arms around him, and fills that empty space. Jack slowly slides his hands up Ianto's back, plant slime and water soaking Ianto's clothes. It occurs to Jack that this is the first time they've really held each other since Ianto's own return. Jack closes his eyes.

Ianto pulls away first. "Always glad to have you back." It's happened so many times that maybe Ianto's gotten used to it. Jack still hasn't.

Then the Doctor emerges, his previously spiked hair slicked back like a helmet from being coated in plant goop for a day. Despite Amy's reaction to the plant stuff on Jack, she runs up to the Doctor and hugs him anyway.

"Going for the gelled look now?" Ianto asks him.

The Doctor smiles like he's holding back a grin. "Do you like it?"

Ianto slides his fingers through the Doctor's hair, slow and considering and tender. Ianto says, "It's gorgeous," and the Doctor beams. Ianto frowns at the plant excretion coating his fingers.

"It's edible," Jack tells him, in case he was wondering.

"It doesn't taste half-bad," the Doctor adds.

"Sort of like seaweed and cucumber."

Ianto pulls a face.

Amy announces she needs to change and Jack withholds all his jokes about being covered in sticky almost-clear goop (he'd exhausted them while navigating out of a plant's stomach with the Doctor anyway). But the Doctor says there's no time for that yet because he needs to talk to the moon's residents about their use of pesticides, and off they go.

Two hours later, the plant goop has thoroughly dried into a crusty shell on Jack's skin and clothes. While it's not the most uncomfortable Jack's ever felt, it's still rather high on the list. But at least the peaceful, eight kilometer long, underground, carnivorous plant is safe. They'd named it Agnes.

"Doctor. Jack," Ianto says at the end of it all. "It's time to get you out of those clothes."

Ianto then helps the both of them peel off their outer layers. It's not sexy – well, actually it's a bit sexy, yeah – but it's mostly Jack and the Doctor making "yick" and "uck" and "eagh" noises and finding how badly the goop has cemented their clothes to their body hair. It becomes a terror to remove the rest gently.

"I've done this before," the Doctor comments drearily around Ianto's stifled laughter. He's just worked his pants off under the shower water, possibly along with a decent portion of his leg hair. "On Earth, in fact. It cost money, but it was about just as painful."

"Waxing isn't something I've ever gotten used to," says Jack.

"Do you want to try the soap again?" Ianto offers as Jack and the Doctor are both down to their underwear. It hasn't done them much good so far. "Or we can try something else. Oil maybe?"

"Ah, it's time to live a little!" the Doctor exclaims, and rips his off. He then proclaims he's dying and that he bequeaths all his possessions to a children's orphanage in New^15 New York before coming back to himself.

When Jack takes a breath and does his own, he gives off a very sturdy, very manly _yeow!_ , although he doesn't _bequeath_ anything.

"I'm glad you're enjoying this," Jack says, trying not to wince, as Ianto's barely containing himself. That must be too much, because Ianto literally clutches his sides and collapses back against the shower wall in laughter. Jack can't help but laugh as well. The Doctor smiles weakly. They must be quite a sight.

*

After a post-victory celebration dinner (no vegetables), Jack sleeps for a day. The climate in the TARDIS is always just right, and the bed is soft and clean. But he misses the short, adrenaline-spiked naps he'd had inside the digestive track of a giant plant with the Doctor next to him, with the air unbearably humid and their clothes soaked-through with sweat and barely-edible plant goop. Jack lays on his back and stares at the ceiling, imagining that the bed would be softer and the air less stagnant if the Doctor or Ianto were laying next to him. He doesn't think of it for long before drifting off from exhaustion. The TARDIS is the only place Jack's been able to sleep in for a very long time.

*

Jack wakes when Ianto knocks on his door. He comes in after Jack responds with a bleary, "Yeah?" and then Jack's blinking up at a mug held before him, steam rising off the top. Jack grins as he sits up and takes it.

"Breakfast in bed? For me?"

"With all the essential food groups: sugar, cream, and caffeine."

"Just what a growing boy needs." Jack takes a careful first drink and makes a long, loud _mmm_ of delicious pleasure. Actually, he's surprised that it tastes like Ianto's coffee. But of course it does. Jack's more surprised at his own surprise, not sure why he expected something else. Ianto smiles, pleased with Jack's reaction. There's a strange comfort in such a familiar scenario, even after everything's changed.

There's a moment, and then Ianto sits on the side of Jack's bed with a knee up, facing him. Jack has a sense what's coming next.

"I was worried about you," Ianto says. He hesitates slightly before he reaches for Jack, settling on a platonic touch to Jack's elbow.

"You should know better by now," Jack teases, hoping to lighten the mood before this gets too serious. It's probably too late for that.

"What's going on?" Ianto's words are soft, as though speaking might break something fragile. "You're shoving me off, I can feel it."

"I'm worried about you," Jack says too quickly. He meant it to be playful, light and casual, but the topic's too serious for it to pass. Ianto's only just regenerated (out of _death_ with the Doctor's help, and Jack didn't even know they could _do_ that) a few weeks back, waking up with two separate lives behind him, both of which have effectively ended. His human self has died (if it was ever real to begin with), and as a Time Lord he's lost his whole planet, his whole family.

"Yeah, well," Ianto says impatiently, but a smile tugs at his lips, "you should know better by now."

"You have another life now."

"You've had many." Ianto still sounds impatient, but there's a softness there as well. His hand slides up Jack's arm to rest on his shoulder. "What's a few more years between friends?"

"Friends?" Jack asks, playfully offended, and Ianto smiles fully now.

"Or _whatever_."

Jack thinks for a moment. "It's not the years," he says, because he has plenty of those himself. It's how the years might have changed him, how his life on Earth wasn't him. Even if all of that was Ianto before, experiences change people; his past life as a Time Lord aside, _dying_ changes a person. "How much of you is still you?"

Ianto makes a soft _ah_ in understanding, and takes a deep breath. "It's all in here." He pauses, licks his lips, and his eyes level heavily on Jack. "But that's not what's really holding you back, is it?"

"I think you'll be happy here," Jack says carefully, gently putting his hand against Ianto's arm to hold this off. Jack sees the way the Doctor looks at Ianto, and he understands how much of his life as a Time Lord Ianto needs to reclaim with the Doctor. The two of them are staying together, Jack already knows this. He really believes Ianto will be happy here.

Ianto looks at him for a moment, considering things. "Aren't you staying too?"

Jack takes a deep breath and shrugs. It's probably a bad idea if he does, but part of him doesn't want to go. Part of him never does. He thinks of Gwen, back on Earth with her baby. Jack shouldn't leave her there.

Ianto's hand slides down his arm, and it feels like he's moving away although he doesn't really go anywhere. Finally Ianto says, "I know you love him."

"This isn't about that."

"And he fancies you too, I suspect."

Jack just laughs, and not because that's funny.

"Jack," Ianto says slowly, like he's choosing his words carefully. "If anyone's taught me that relationships can be far more... _dynamic_ than what's taught on 21st century Earth, it's you."

"Glad I'm not the only one who thinks so."

"There's one other person I think would agree with us."

Jack's hesitant to follow where Ianto's going with that, so he jokes. "Amy? But she'll never get Rory to agree."

Ianto laughs. "Okay, two other people."

*

"I like the bow-tie," Jack says as Ianto works it off the Doctor, because right now it seems the three of them think it'll look better on the floor. Although maybe Jack can ask the Doctor if he'll put it back on after his shirt comes off. Naked but for his bow-tie, that would be good too.

But Ianto's hands are fast, eager, and the slip of cloth flutters through the air as he tosses it.

"Yeah," Ianto says belatedly with a smile. "It works for you."

Then Ianto pulls the Doctor forward and kisses him. There's an emptiness in the Doctor's eyes, deep enough to swallow them all, until he closes them against the kiss. Jack slides over, wrapping his arms around the Doctor and pressing into his side as he reaches between their two bodies.

"Open your eyes," Jack says softly, his fingers tracing up the buttons of the Doctor's shirt. When he gets to the top, he begins unbuttoning them down, slowly parting his shirt, exposing his chest, opening him up.

The Doctor turns to Jack with open eyes. Just as quickly, he's reaching for him and pulling Jack into a kiss, hungry and eager. He wraps his arm around Ianto and grips the front of Jack's shirt, pulling both of them closer. Jack's seen the Doctor's naked body, but he's never seen him so exposed.

Jack doesn't have any of the answers, and sex has never given him any. But this feels right, with Ianto's hands running over his shoulders and the Doctor in his arms. The past always feels so quickly gone, as though time has rushed by Jack counted in lifetimes, not seconds. He has so much past that he should be dust by now, dry and empty with nothing left of him outside or in. But he's here now, caught in a moment, drinking them in enough to drown. He'll stay for a while – for a lifetime, maybe. For as long as they'll have him.

*

The Doctor and Ianto are swinging their legs over the side of a purple quartz cliff. Jack's standing beside them, leaning on the rail and admiring the view. The quartz glistens for kilometers, jagged edges of cliffs and plateaus heading off into the horizon, although the protective oxygen dome only covers a few hundred yards. They're at the edge, looking out on a crystal planet glistening in twilight. It's gorgeous.

Ianto asks, "No plants on this planet, I take it?"

"Not a one," the Doctor replies emphatically. "Except for small, imported ones tended in the oxygen gardens. But they're not carnivorous. And they don't have mouths."

"Too bad." Jack joins them, sitting beside Ianto and leaning through the rail. "My body hair is starting to grow back. I was getting used to being smooth down there."

Ianto snorts. "Stubble." His hand glides over Jack's knee. Ianto's other hand has the Doctor's fingers loosely entwined in his lap.

Jack continues, "I should start shaving more," and takes Ianto's hand.

"Well," the Doctor starts with a smile, "I thought it would be nice here. You did ask for something ' _romantically aesthetic_ '."

Jack looks over, because _he_ hadn't asked for that. Ianto gives Jack his most _innocent_ expression and looks away.

Ah. Jack gets it. "Amy and Rory all settled in then?"

The Doctor nods. "Honeymoon suite."

"How many honeymoons can they have?" Ianto scoffs with a laugh. Jack thinks they're on four by now, but he can't be sure since he wasn't around for the first few.

Jack has other interests. The thought of being alone with the two of them suddenly, urgently, intrigues him. "How much time do we have?"

"Time machine." Ianto says.

"Yes, right," Jack begins, because they have all the time in the world, "but-"

"No, no." Ianto is standing. The Doctor and Jack are being pulled along. "I mean, time machine. There, now. Every deck. Time to break it in. Multiple times."

The Doctor is smiling contentedly, like he's patiently amused – much more calm than Jack would think for Ianto's invitation. The Doctor looks out over the quartz, at Ianto, back, and suddenly back again. "Oh! Oh, you mean..."

"Something Jack taught me. It's not home until you've shagged in every room of it. We still have about four decks to go."

The Doctor has the familiar look of exhaustion and anticipation in his eyes. So Jack encouragingly adds, "We can stop by the café again."

"Oh, I like when it happens in the café!" the Doctor says, brightening at the prospect. "It's so convenient, with the whipped cream machine right there." His free hand dances over the air, as though he's imagining operating the machine right now. He looks delighted, and then mischievous. "It's so... _messy_."

Jack grins and puts an arm around the Doctor's shoulders, and the other around Ianto's. "Sounds like a plan." Which is nice, because it's the first one Jack's had in a long time.

*

[end]


End file.
